The New Temple: Where God Rebuilds What Was Broken | Fr. Samuel Mbabaali - John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and

pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip

of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and

oxen. And he poured out the coins of

the money changers and overturned their tables.

And he's told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.

Do not make my father's house a House of trade.

His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house

will consume me. So the Jews said to him, what

sign do you show us for doing these things?

Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I

will raise it up. The Jews then said, It has taken

46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in

three days. But he was speaking about the

temple of his body. When therefore, he was raised

from the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said

this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that

Jesus had spoken the gospel of the Lord.

I'll begin by taking you to an event that happened last week at

the carpenter's house over here. Though I did ask that I would

speak about this from him. So last week we were gathered at

for a meal at the capital's house and someone broke a piece

of tableware. So please don't ask me to tell

you who the person was, because I believe all of us at one time

have ever broken a piece of tableware or any other vase.

And but this is how Joe responded when that happened.

He came out and took out some broom and was able to sweep the

piece that had broken and he took it to the trash.

This is what often time we do when such occasions have

happened and something has fallen and it's broken.

But there is an art from the Japanese community that repairs

shut such shattered pottery and it turns out to be beautiful.

It is called Kingsugi Kingsugi. I might have not pronounced it

so well, but it uses gold and silver and other precious

materials to bring back life to shattered pottery.

And it becomes reusable again, but also more valuable because

of such repair. In the new temple, the heart of

God being a repairer is revealed.

God shows us his self as being a repairer because he restores

things that would have been rejected, things that are in

need of healing, which would have been abandoned.

God brings them back to life. Things that would have been cast

aside as being useless. God restores them to life and

renews them into things that are beautiful.

In John chapter 2, verse 13 to 28, which is our gospel reading,

I ask you to turn to that in your bulletin.

We see that God restores the broken temple and ultimately

each one of us. He cleanses the system of the

temple. He redefines the purposes of the

temple, but also He resurrects the glory of this temple.

I invite you to walk with me in this passage as we look at a

journey of restoration which is unfolding in three movements.

God is presence reveals holiness where it has been compromised.

So when Jesus walks into the temple, his very presence

exposes the corruption that was woven into the system of this

temple. Unlike Jesus seems so full as

always, pulling through crowds to Christ, pulling Christ crowds

to God. The temple instead had become a

magnet that was repairing people away from God instead of pulling

them to God. It was a counterfeit that was

casting people away from God instead of welcoming them.

In other words, the mission of the temple had been lost.

The mission of welcoming people had now turned into a mission of

sending away people from God. It had been compromised in many

ways. So Jesus finds this system that

is broken in many ways. It was broken spiritually, it

was broken morally, but also it was broken from a relational

perspective. A place that was meant to be a

place of sacred prayer, drawing God's presence had instead

become a place of performance and transaction.

And you could tell that the people were coming just to

fulfill their obligations religiously.

They had ceased to encounter God at this space.

It was spiritually broken that people were there just for

activity, not for intimacy with God.

The worshippers from all nations who could come there couldn't

experience intimacy with God. It was just ritualities of

sacrifice and other things that happened there.

Now Jesus looks around and he sees the animals there on sale,

and he quickly learns that these animals are sold at inflated

prices. They are exchanged, the prices

that are inflated. And he sympathizes with some of

the foreigners and the poor who are being affected by this kind

of scam and exploitation because they were being exploited by

buying these animals at prices that were inflated.

You know very well that sometimes systems of religion

can become places of exploitation and fraud.

Places of systemic abuses will amend over such systems, just as

Jesus would have lamented in this occasion where there is

injustice and greed and exploitation.

But also Jesus observes that what would have been a temple

for all the nations together, where it was called the court of

the Gentiles, this is where this business was happening.

In other words, some people who would have come and sat and used

that space. We are being pushed out of this

place, of this space which was reserved for them, and instead

of protecting these people and allowing them to come and

flourish in that place, it had ceased to be a system that

brings people to come and encounter God.

It was a system for the few. The other majority from all over

the world has ceased to have a room in that place.

God usually exposes the corrupt systems and the corrupt spaces

when he comes and meets them, but he doesn't only stop at

exposing them. He does something against them.

He does something to see that we are restored.

There are four Out of righteous anger and the holy zeal, Jesus

decides to confront this corruption at the temple and he

gets out a whip and he begins to drive out these merchants.

This is a something that is surprising when you read in the

gospels because oftentimes you are used to this Jesus who is me

can humble, but now Jesus is turning out to be.

You can think is Jesus out of control?

Has he lost his mind? Certainly not.

Jesus is still in control. He's trying to make space for

God is presence. His actions are not fueled by

wrath, but this is love. This is holy passion.

He's consumed by the desire to see that the purposes of God for

this temple are not done away with, they are restored.

Jesus is truly revealing his true mission of building God's

temple, not with bricks, but with his zeal for purity and

God's presence. This was a temple that was not

to be built by human effort. This is not Jesus using his

human effort. He's using his new divine

effort. Not Jesus acting as a man who is

annoyed and using his anger, but as God himself is fulfilling the

purposes for this temple. Several times before God

rebuilds us into a new temple, He first removes what has

defiled us. It is like someone who is going

to paint a house that is filled with a lot of molds on the

walls. You begin by clearing these

molds and then you can paint it. Sometimes it involves tearing

down the things that are contaminated in our lives before

God can build us and restore us to what God wants us to be.

But oftentimes, some of these things that God wants to tear

out from us, they are near to us.

We feel that we should have them.

These are habits and attitudes and some of the things that we

love. When God tries to pull us away

from those things, we feel that it is He's not doing the right

thing. Resist him.

Can you imagine if he were a home owner who wants to renovate

your house, but but you, you, you cannot endure some of the,

the, the, the interruption of renovating this house, the dust

that is going to fall down, the noise that is going to come from

the dreams and the workers moving all over and all the

demolition that is going on. Yet several times this is our

posture with God when we long for healing and blessing and

restoration, several times we feel that the process we cannot

endure the process. We love the blessing of

restoration and healing, but the process when God begins fixing

our lives, we have prayed, God, I want you to fix my life.

But when God begins to fix our lives, several times we say

please. I didn't think that you would

take away that even from me, because these are some of the

things that we think. They define our success.

They define our relationships and all the things that are dear

to us. Letting go of some of those

things might be painful, but God sometimes wants to begin by

cleansing us before He restores us.

By pulling out those things that are causing us not to walk

according to His direction. He pulls them away to give us a

gracious gift that surpasses the things that have been defining

us. But for him, He looks at them

that they are contaminating us. It pulls us away from

contamination so that he can restore us to what he wants us

to be. Friends, is there anything in

your temple, in your heart, in your habits, in your worship

that God longs to overturn? That God wants to pull away from

you? The God who confronted the

broken temple is stealing the business of cleansing us, not

out of anger, but out of deep desire that we are made whole

and we fulfill the purposes as to why He has given us life.

He doesn't want to destroy us, He just wants to create room for

something new. Something new sometimes needs to

be something old, needs to be pulled out so that something new

can be given room. I would love you to imagine a

situation where you went back to your neighborhood where you grew

up as a child, and as you are running around, you're moving

around, you notice that your house where you grew up is now

reduced to rubbles. And you then you feel this shock

because this is the house that held all your memories, your

identity. You felt this is something

special to you as the person who grew up in that house.

You begin to feel annoyed and angry and lost.

Why would someone tear down this house?

You begin to ask. But soon you hear and you learn

that the house had ceased to be safe.

All the walls we are now crumbling and rotting.

The foundation was rotten. And then someone had to tear

down this house to create room for a new building, which now

people have begun using. And now it's a glorious

building, and many people entering into that building to

begin taking residence in that building.

And then you begin realizing that your attachment to that

house was because you loved it because of what it symbolized,

not because of its functionality.

The functionality had seized, but you still loved that house

because of its symbol in your identity as a person who lived

in that house. This is what exactly Jesus does

in verses 18 to 12. He really finds the temple in a

way that seems like it's a loss. The religious leaders that were

there couldn't understand the kind of redefinition of the

temple that Jesus was bringing on board.

It seems as if Jesus was destabilizing the system.

It seems as if Jesus was speaking heresy.

Yet Jesus was indeed building something that is glorious and

outstanding. God is work of rebuilding us

often begins by some aspects of destabilizing our corrupt life.

Sometimes we might be tired to resistance because of what God

is doing. Since he's destabilizing us, we

can resist Him and sometimes we might even question His

authority. That is why verse 818 where the

Jews, the religious leaders, ask Jesus about his authority.

This is what we are saying. Who are you to do this to us?

We are used to this system. Why are you doing this to us?

They are questioning His authority.

They want to know why is this man doing this?

But instead of focusing on what Jesus is doing, they miss to see

the deep truth of what Jesus is doing because they're used to

this system that Jesus is trying to remote and redefine anew.

Oftentimes we miss what God is doing in our lives, the aspect

of rebuilding our lives, because sometimes it doesn't look as

what we expect. We often don't understand the

process, and when we don't understand the process, we begin

questioning the worker. Imagine if someone you call to

set up your house begins doing things that you feel it's not

the right process. You will ask, is this the right

builder who is on site? You begin questioning his his

credentials. This is what they use.

The religious leaders did they begin to question who is this

man doing this? Many times when we don't

understand the processes of God, we begin questioning his

character. How can a loving God do this to

me? How can a caring God do this to

me? Because we don't understand his

processes, we end up questioning his character and wanting Him to

prove his credentials to us. But interestingly, the religious

leaders did arrest Jesus. They never arrested him somehow.

Perhaps they were recognizing that this system is corrupted.

It is a lot of commercialization is corrupted, but yet still they

demanded him to prove why is he unsettling this system.

They wanted him to prove his credentials for unsettling this

kind of system. And then in response, Jesus

offered them a sign, but a sign that they didn't expect.

It was something that they least expected because it Jesus was

trying to shift their entire understanding of the temple.

He invites them to see the true authority and the true worship

that should go on in that temple.

Jesus answers them in verse 19 to 20, Destroy this temple.

And in three days I rise it up. And then the youth said it has

taken 46 years to build this temple and will you rise it up

in three days? The religious leaders, we are

focused on the stones of the temple and the timeline of

building this temple. But Jesus was pushing and

pointing to them something that was far greater.

They misunderstanding this, what Jesus was pointing to them.

Jesus was really finding something.

Jesus was trying to put a turning point into their

understanding. He was showing them that there

is a building that is not built by hands.

And this is what I'm setting up for you.

Jesus was revealing Himself as the new and glorious temple.

It was a time of fixing attention from a temple that is

a place to a temple that is a person, a temple that is a

structure to a temple that is a savior, a temple that is of

walls, to a temple that is of glorious, A glorious reason

body. In the crucifixion of Jesus

Christ, the temple was torn down.

And then when Jesus rose again from the dead, a new temple was

set up for us. And then when we meet up as

believers, we don't now think about buildings, but we meet in

the intimacy of this new temple where Jesus has set up a place

for us, not just in a small building somewhere in Jerusalem.

That way all of us should have a pilgrimage and go and meet up in

that building. Now we meet in this new

intimacy, this new temple that Jesus has set up for us as

believers. And you know that after Jesus

resurrection he ascended into heaven and then he outpoured his

Holy Spirit upon us all. And in the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit in our lives, all of us become temples of God.

God resides in our lives. This is the glorious thing that

Jesus was pointing towards which the people couldn't understand.

And now we have a glorious high priest.

He can minister to us whatever, not just at a specific place in

Jerusalem. He ministers to us wherever

gloriously in a new ministry. When we speak about this truth

of Jesus becoming the new temple and our lives, our bodies

becoming new temples, they should lead to some aspect of up

thinking up. How does this shift our

understanding of the whole approach?

God, we have this glorious gift of the new temple, but many

times we still cling to old forms of faith.

Sometimes we still have that understanding that we can meet

up God only in that building, only in that tradition, only

through that person, only there. That should shift our

understanding because now we have this glorious temple and

God is inviting us into that temple.

If at all you have not yet encountered that temple, God is

here with us. Even today you can meet up with

Him, that temple is still open for all of us.

Even now you can meet up with Jesus, if at all you choose to

believe in Him as the reason. Lord, the person who has opened

up the doors wide for this new temple for you to enter in.

The invitation is here today for you come to Christ.

The reason Lord, that temple is still open for all of us to come

into. I would love to take you to some

event that happened in 1993 at the Super Bowl competition for

all of you are interested in that.

At half time, Mike Jackson did something that was unexpected.

He steps on the stage and the contrary to the plan with the

director, instead of beginning his performance, he pauses for

two minutes and it causes some kind of of tense between him and

the director. It was not the script who was

supposed to begin dancing and performing there and then, but

he pauses for two minutes. In a pause that seemed like

eternity for the director. But something was working out.

Because after all that pause, Mark Jackson picked up and it

became that this glorious pause ended up as something legendary.

It made the show to be a glorious show.

Sometimes moments that lead to glory seem as if they are they

they are lost. We are, we are.

Why are we waiting for all this long?

Why do you have to wait for this glory for all this long?

It seems as if it's a loss. But for your information, even

Jesus posed at a glorious something that was leading to

his glorious days. Jesus posed for three days in

the grave, and as he was pausing, some people didn't

understand why Jesus was posing for three days.

But when the glorious thing came out, then we were able to

understand this. This is why in verse 22 it says

when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples

remembered that he had said this and they believed the Scripture

and the word that Jesus had spoken.

What seemed as if it was at a moment of tension, which, which

which was as if something that was at a loss ended up becoming

something that is glorious, the resurrection of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ. It was a pause that led to a

glorious, glorious ending which we are still even encountering

even up to now. Because of that glorious ending,

we can speak about Christ. Paul says that if we didn't have

this message of the resurrection, we wouldn't have

anything to tell you. If at all there was no that

pause that led to this glorious resurrection, we wouldn't have a

message for you. Friends, we believe in the

miracle of the resurrection, the miracle of the resurrection of

Jesus Christ and this miracle. Sometimes when we speak about

times of pauses, we might not understand this pauses.

Let me speak about some of the pauses in our lives that happen.

Sometimes we are called for pauses and we feel why?

Why do we need to pause? Sometimes we go through losses

and we don't understand these losses.

For instance, you are in this glorious relationship with

someone and you feel maybe it's a God sent relationship and then

it ends abruptly. Maybe you are having this good

health and then at some point then you lose your health and

you become sick. Maybe there is this career,

wonderful career, that which which comes to an end abruptly

in a way that you didn't prepare for.

Some of these times that seem to be losses, we cannot understand

them fully, not until when sometimes God shows us the full

meaning at after the resurrection and the recovery.

Therefore, God when he is restoring us, even those times

that seem as if they are losses, God has a reason as to why they

are as if losses, but they can be turned into glorious moments

and even seen our lives. I would love to speak and

emphasize about this resurrection.

Christ, who opened for us a new temple, is still in the business

of giving us new life. Christ wants to give us new

life. He's like this Japanese artist

who repairs and brings back pottery, shattered pottery into

life. I would love to give you this

message that here today Christ can extend a gift of life to

you, if at all you believe in Him as the reason and the Savior

of the world. He's alive.

He wants to work in our lives. He wants to work in your life.

He wants to give us the beauty, first of all, the beauty, not

just the beauty of the world, but also the beauty of satanity.

In the resurrection we have a hope, a hope for eternity.

Many people in life, they are living a life that is not a life

of hope. Because of the trials and the

tribulations around us, it is easy to walk around without

hope. Friends, Christian life has

hope, and that life is in Christ Jesus.

His body was shattered and it was brought back gloriously.

Our bodies are going to be shattered, but Christ is ready

to bring them back gloriously. If at all.

We say we believe in Him and we surrender to Him thereof.

I would love to invite you into this new temple that is in the

body of Jesus Christ, into this new temple that you can have

even in your life as a person. It is there for us.

Why would we seek to find Christ in just a limited place, in just

a small temple, in just a small tradition, in just a small

building, when Christ can be found even right now here in

your life? I will come you into that new

temple in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.